This invention relates to water filters having removable filter cartridges. More particularly, this invention relates to filters, such as household water filters, that are attachable to faucets and provide the option of providing either filtered or unfiltered water.
Various impurities, such as minerals, trihalomethanes, chlorine, and particulates, often enter domestic tap water to effect the taste, odor, appearance, and healthfulness of the water. In order to remove these impurities, filtration devices can be coupled to household water faucets. Such filtration devices sometimes include a housing and base containing a removable cartridge filter, with the base removably attached to the faucet and having a mechanism that allows the user to selectively obtain either filtered or unfiltered water from the filtration device.
Such devices in the prior art have suffered from several problems. They have often had water-flow switching mechanisms that are costly to manufacture, easily worn out, or difficult to replace when worn out. They have also often been relatively expensive to manufacture, requiring cumbersome or labor intensive production methods, costly or excessive materials, or relatively costly tooling. Further, they have sometimes been aesthetically unattractive for household use.
Equally important, many of the devices in the prior art have cartridge filters that do not filter the water adequately or as much as is desirable. In addition, some cartridge filters in the prior art require the entire water filter apparatus to be disconnected from the water faucet in order to replace the cartridge filter in the apparatus.